The Red Sox once again had a season built on pitching, and Aroldis Chapman was right at the center of it. At 38, he kept finishing games the way Boston needed, piling up another elite year in the ninth inning while earning an All-Star nod and hitting a major career milestone along the way.
Chapman’s presence helped give the Red Sox the kind of late-game stability that fueled a strong summer run and made Chad Tracy’s first season as manager a little less chaotic. When the bullpen door swung open, Boston knew exactly what it was getting: power, poise, and a left arm that still plays like it belongs in a younger body.
The numbers backed it up. Chapman saved 35 games, tied for fifth-most in the majors, and posted a 1.92 ERA that put him among the best relievers in baseball.
It was also another season with at least 30 saves, his second All-Star selection as a Red Sox player, and the ninth All-Star nod of his career. On top of that, Chapman became the ninth player in MLB history to reach 400 saves.
His best stretch came in July, when he collected nearly a third of those saves and gave up just one run across 12 innings. That run of dominance was a major reason the Red Sox rolled through a 15-game winning streak in the middle of the month.
Boston and Chapman clearly saw enough to keep the partnership going. After the season, both sides opted into their $13 million mutual option for 2027, bringing the closer back for another year.
If his overall season was impressive, his most memorable moment may have come with his glove. On the road against the Atlanta Braves, Chapman was handed a 3-2 lead and worked through early trouble before a bizarre sequence turned the game into a real test.
After recording the first two outs, three Braves reached on an error and two Chapman walks, loading the bases. Ha-Seong Kim then sent a grounder back toward the mound that ricocheted off Chapman, but he reacted quickly, tracked it down, and flipped to first for the final out to preserve the win.
The milestone save came a little later. Chapman recorded his 400th career save against the Baltimore Orioles in early September during the Red Sox four-game sweep.
For the season, Chapman finished with 53 games, 51.2 innings, a 1.92 ERA, a 1.12 WHIP, 35 saves, 71 strikeouts, 23 walks, 1.9 bWAR and 1.6 fWAR. He wasn’t quite as overpowering as he was in his first year in Boston, but he still held down his spot among baseball’s top relievers. He did allow more walks and more hits than he did in 2025, and he gave up the same number of home runs, yet the drop-off never became dramatic enough to knock him from his perch as one of the game’s most effective arms.
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